Monday, October 15, 2007

Lessons @ LBSNAA

I am back !!!

Ever since I joined the Foundation Course at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), I have been suffering from intense pangs of anomie and laziness. Added to that are the various explicit and implicit restrictions that come with the status of being a civil servant. The conduct rules places a restraint on our freedom of expression under the clause of “criticizing the Government”. So probably there wouldn’t be much criticism of Government in this blog henceforth. But, I guess that the restrictions would be a challenge too. Anyways, it feels good to have a disclaimer on my blog. I finally feel usefully and gainfully employed.

So much has happened in the last two months that it would be difficult boring to chronicle them in a single post. Glimpses of life at LBSNAA can be had at blogs of my colleagues, Aunrag and Sundar.

Today, I would like to give some insights on the training that happens here. The importance of soft skills has been realized by the Government. And they have also realized that all lessons cannot be imparted in the conventional classroom-type teaching. So here are a few out-of-the-box and out-of-the-classroom techniques of imparting soft skills.

Auditorium

The enlightening lectures at the Sampoornanand auditorium is often a transcendental experience. The Officer Trainees (OTs) go into a different mental plane, which the course team and visiting faculty term as “sleeping’. It is here that the dreams and vision for the glorious future of our country take birth. OTs train themselves (You see we are also made adept in Self-learning), in Dr Kalam’s art of dreaming and developing a vision. The seeds of Vision 3030 are sown here.

Dispensary

The dispensary is the place where OTs hone their persuasive and negotiating skills. Every visitor tries his best to convince the Doctor that any activity other than walking, particularly the early morning Physical Training, is lethal. Previous records state that the OT who gets the maximum exemptions from attending the PT sessions inevitably wins the A. N. Sinha One Act play.

OT Lounge

The billiards table has more players than the number of balls. The place makes an excellent case study for successful implementation of principles of equity and inclusiveness. And way the game is played is an exposition on classical laissez faire at work. Such is the freedom that one ingenious OT revealed that he prefers reverse usage of cue as it is more convenient to hit the ball with the handle, which has bigger circumference. Who says bureaucrats are bookish, impractical and unimaginative?

Treks

It is necessary that public servants are polite, courteous and helpful. The weekend treks help in inculcating these much-valued traits. They bring out the chivalrous knights hidden inside the OTs. The extent of chivalry is directly proportional to slope of the path and the goodlooks of the OT. A couple of clarifications here:

1) Beauty is subjective and depends on the sole discretion of the beholder.

2) The second factor has ten times the weightage of the first one.

3) If the recipient belongs to a good cadre and the knight to the cadres that truly demand him to be a knight in a fighting armor, then chivalry is unconditional.

Officers’ Mess

The food is a symbol of national integration. You will never be able to distinguish a South Indian sambhar from a North Indian dal. Such is the cross-cultural culinary acclimatization that the Indian Foreign Service probationers who do not skip a single meal at the mess are the ones who feel at home in Côte d'Ivoire.

We have much more than this in our training. But let me save them for another post.

PS1: It is mandatory to leave a comment for all OTs reading this post.

PS2: Firefox users, please note that the LBSNAA website works well only with Internet Explorer.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

:-))

Is one of your optionals "sarcasm" ? :-)

BTW: naku firefox lo kuda bane panichestondi.. i use 2.0.0.6

Cosmic Voices said...

How I wish it was so.... I would have got a better rank

I use 2.0.0.7 ..kani konni options pani cheyavu.....like the link "The Academy", which has a tour of the academy, does not function properly.

Anonymous said...

> I use 2.0.0.7 ..kani konni options
> pani cheyavu.....like the link "The > Academy", which has a tour of the
> academy, does not function properly.

oh ok annayya.

i didn't think guys at lbsnaa care about ho-hum tech stuff :-)

Cosmic Voices said...

Thammudu,

These days there are too many engineers here. So we too are getting tech savvy, if not geeks.

Sameera said...

yeah i agree with praveen whoever he is that other mortals wouldnt bother with the kind of details that u did...abt firefox and its versions..

guess ur engineering background is talking :p

nice to know abt ur life with the other OTS. keep posting and entertaining and please do something so that sarcasm is introduced as a subject in schools...

but darn, tis too late for moi :(

Cosmic Voices said...

Engineering background?

Don't remind me of that. I flunked in the MS-Word exam. :-(

In any case, you don't need classes for sarcasm.

And, what happened to your blog.... start updating... with all that hot and spicy things that are happening in your life

Just Simple said...

I would like to know more about academy, of course from you :P

So how is the cosmic knight faring, how is his chivalry coming out for damsels :)

It needs a special eye to watch these intricacies, and yes if there was a subject you would have got a much better rank.

Cosmic Voices said...

The cosmic knight is romantically challenged.:-(

kuffir said...

welcome back..ot.

Vamsi said...

even this hard training couldnt remove the sarcasm out of you.....

what can possibly change you :)

oh and as far as the food goes...i guess it is a universal trait of cooks at hostels....you see no discrimination policy

Cosmic Voices said...

@ Kuffir

Thanks !!!

@ Goofy

Congenital diseases are incurable.

Sameera said...

dont u mislead ppl into thinking u have blogged again with those wrong gtalk status messages!!!!!

>:p

Pilani Pictures said...

unakku lollu romba jaasthi pa!! esp the billiards table and the OTs' mess..
:)

Pilani Pictures said...

Unakku hidden koluppu romba jaasthi pa!! (Pls expose more of it in the Academy)

The billiads table, OTs' mess are really too much...
:)
:)

Cosmic Voices said...

:-)

Thank You

Aana idhukku mela koluppu kattina cue va vache kutthiruvaanga !!!

Kar Salaam said...

Hi.
Nice to have you back. Love to read more of your experiences in the Academy. Keep blogging.

Cosmic Voices said...

Thanks BS!

Anonymous said...

Nice to see your post after a long time....

mutRupuLLi said...

Vanakkam Thalaiva,
Welcome back to Blogdom.......
The post as usual is very funny....So the training to become a BABU is not having its effect so far.. :)
BTW I hope you haven't forgotten the BAN Card.....Hope to see it implemented by 3030 atleast...:)

Cosmic Voices said...

@Bruno

:-)

@ Mutrupulli

Thanks!!!

I haven't forgetten Thala.... You will be the first recipient.

Esha said...

Hi!!
I was trying to remember the name of the PT field.....it has slipped my mind, and is just at the edge of my consciousness...could you help, please?
Regards,
Esha

Cosmic Voices said...

Ironically, it is called "Happy Valley"

Unknown said...

I am planning to appear for Prelims in 2010 and I have just taken a printout of the first 200 pages of India Year Book. It is having 1200 pages and I wanted to request you to provide me with some tips - how to go through it effectively ? Pls. let me know.

Thanks!

Cosmic Voices said...

@ Suhasini

Don't try to remember all the facts. Just give it a reading. Underline, what you think is imporant. Revise what you have underlined. That should suffice. That is what I did.

Good luck to you!!!